From Paramedic to RN: A Professional Journey: History

As an eighteen year-old senior in high school, I had no idea what I wanted from life. I graduated from Concord High without wavering from that indecisiveness. The summer came without hesitation and ended almost without incident. However, near my 19th birthday in August of 1993, I decided that I would do something with my life and enlisted in the United States Air Force. I was shipped to Military Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas on October 5th and had a hell of a time there. You see, just a month before, I was acting in a play in Danville, California and had all the freedom in the world. Despite my few encounters with my Army drill sergeant father over random summers in my youth, I was unable to comprehend that the military was not created to allow for individual differences, especially California differences of justice and equality; I graduated successfully, though, and in an honor flight at that.

I was stationed at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware on December 21, 1993 where I spent my time in the military as a Hazardous Materials Journeyman. Interestingly enough, the date I arrived was the date that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was put into effect. On October 31, 1994 I boarded a plane for California, honorable discharge in hand. I told. However, in my year and twenty-six days enlisted, I learned a great deal of discipline and structural ideologies about the chain of command – a great asset to my future EMS career.

After two years of attempting junior college and withdrawing from most every class because of boredom, my mother decided that I was going to go to school to be an Emergency Medical Technician-Basic. In June of 1996, I started my 8 week EMT course, finishing around August. Luckily, I was already connected to a few folk in EMS and was able to obtain a position as an EMT with Redwood Empire Life Support in Santa Rosa, California directly out of school. While at RELS, I worked concurrently for Contra Costa County’s TeenAge Program teaching health and prevention at area high schools and juvenile hall. Over the following four years, I worked at two other ambulance companies, Antioch Ambulance and Westmed Ambulance, as an EMT on basic life support, advanced life support, and critical care units in almost every county surrounding the San Francisco area. I ended my time at Westmed in 2000 as a Field Training Officer and Station Chief for their Concord location.

I began paramedic school in 1998 and graduated in 2000. Pooling resources from past jobs, I found myself at Redwood Empire Life Support again for two years working on EMT/Paramedic ambulances as the ALS partner. I had to have been insane throughout these two years, as I worked anywhere from 96-120 hours per week. I didn’t have much of a life, but it was not unlike the couple of years prior during paramedic school, in class three days a week and working three 24-hour shifts in my off days. During my clinical externship, I had a three hour drive in each direction to my eight hour hospital rotations at Rideout Hospital in Marysville, California. While my field internship was relatively close, I was working opposite Kelly shifts for my paid position at Westmed and my internship at American Medical Response – Contra Costa County; this schedule put me on an ambulance generally 5-6 days a week. My paid paramedic posts weren’t at the busiest stations, so I got a decent amount of rest, and my company was amenable to downing my unit due to fatigue if need be. Looking back, I realize that I had become accustomed to long hours and very little time at home, something I could do without nowadays.

The days away from work as a paramedic were generally filled working for either REACH dispatch as a rotor- and fixed-wing air rescue dispatcher or Kaiser Permanente Hospital as an Emergency Room Technician. The exposure to in-hospital medicine made me seriously look at a future in clinical medicine and I decided to move away prehospital patient care for the moment and accept a full time position with Kaiser. After an approved transfer, my plane touched down in Honolulu, Hawaii where I completed a six month stint in the emergency room at Kaiser Moanalua.

A return to the mainland in 2002 led me to Portland, Oregon, and I began my career in education as the Program Director for a medical assistant program. While in Portland, I frequently taught paramedic pharmacology and anatomy and physiology, specializing in cardiology, pulmonology, and endocrinology across the border in Washington for Northwest Regional Training Center, Clark County, Fire District 5. After three years in Oregon and Washington, I moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area.

In December of 2005, I accepted a position as the General Manager for a start-up ambulance company in Alameda County and spent six months setting up all of their standard operating procedures, completing all regulatory documentation to legally operate a medical transport company, and hiring the first round of employees. After the company had a foundation, I returned to academics and remained there as the Director of Academics and Operations until September of 2011.

On the side, I have been involved in volunteer medicine since I became an EMT in 1996. I have worked at a number of different events from street fairs to car races, and love every minute of it. This past year, my experience came in handy as the Logistics Medical Manager for San Francisco Pride; we handled nearly 220 calls in a two-day period, including a shooting incident with five patients. Beyond emergency medicine, I continue to be involved in community medicine as a HIV counselor and public health volunteer.

That about brings things up-to-date with my experience in medicine, even though I’m sure I have left something out. But, this is not an autobiography – I do hope that this quick insight gives you an idea of my experience and what I believe qualifies me to write a blog of this nature.

Thank you! I look forward to any questions or responses to this blog!